I’ve been lucky in that somehow I’ve been picked up as a blogger by International Bipolar Disorder and NAMI but truly for every four submissions I send out to other digital publications, only one gets picked up. I got really close to being picked up by Bipolar Magazine’s digital arm, “Bipolar Hope.” They take a lot of drug company money in terms of advertising and I challenged them by sending a Tardive Dyskinesia story. If I had really wanted the twice monthly opportunity, I should have sent them a glossier blog on a ‘shiny happy people’ (REM song) topic. See, IBPF has the distinction of being totally independent financially from the drug companies, so we bloggers can be a bit more truthful, blunt, even, if the subject is so. But we balance it out by emphasizing that it does get better.

The rest of my submissions are rejected for one reason or another. There was Stigma fighters, I guess that evaluating my 25 year struggle on paper I told too many stories and talked about meds too much. When you develop Tardive Dyskinesia, Sexual Side Effects, Terrible Constipation, Constant hunger and Metabolic syndrome (half-way to diabetes thru no fault of my own…I eat good am very active and slender) it’s pretty hard to ignore the challenges and victories over those problems like they don’t exist,

I mean think about this: How many of us have gained or watched a loved one weight and not be able to lose it after being put on psych meds? There are advances in Western Science and Alternative solutions too, and I want to write about my journey. After all, I’m still alive and pretty happy.

Then there was the ‘seeds of hope’ submission and they objected to too much personal narrative and not enough of a “we can conquer thru ideology” presentation. So I’ve realized that in all this advocacy, I have to nurture myself, focus on what’s really important and develop a thick skin. And to stick to my own platforms, like this blog and the book I am writing. Does anyone else out there ‘feel’ me?

Ok, I did a video for healthline and AstraZeneca. It was called ‘you’ve got this,’ where I speak to a newly diagnosed person. It was rejected once because I put AstraZeneca in the title. They could have deleted it, once I pressed ‘send’ it belonged to them anyway. Then they rejected it on the grounds that they could read a label of a medication in a frame. So we cut that out. We never heard from them again. The editor who was NOT in charge said she liked my message and didn’t understand why It was rejected. I’ll tell you why: It had music, edits, energy and was different from the six minute selfies with bad light and ambient sound that were selected to be displayed. A lot of people poured out their life story and only 12 videos could be displayed, they didn’t even have a list.

Ok, I did a video for healthline and AstraZeneca. It was called ‘you’ve got this,’ where I speak to a newly diagnosed person. It was rejected once because I put AstraZeneca in the title. They could have deleted it, once I pressed ‘send’ it belonged to them anyway. Then they rejected it on the grounds that they could read a label of a medication in a frame. So we cut that out. We never heard from them again. The editor who was NOT in charge said she liked my message and didn’t understand why It was rejected. I’ll tell you why: It had music, edits, energy and was different from the six minute selfies with bad light and ambient sound that were selected to be displayed. A lot of people poured out their life story and only 12 videos could be displayed, they didn’t even have a list.